Of Cabbages and Kings and Measuring PR
We kicked off our first Twitterchat on measuring public relations yesterday, with the “queen of measurement” herself, Katie Paine. From 12-1 pm EST, we had an incredibly lively and vibrant discussion that surprised even me, the organizer – and I should know not to be surprised by anything on Twitter by now!
You might wonder why I borrowed from “The Walrus and the Carpenter” in titling this post. The thing is, Mr. Carroll’s poem is so full of beautiful whimsy, I can’t help but think it reflects some of the chaos we are still dealing with when it comes to measuring PR.
I write and speak often on this but really… why are we still going round and round in circles about something like AVE (ad value equivalency) which is essentially a measure of output when we know what’s really important to the C-suite is focusing on outcomes? Fortuitously, I stumbled across Pritesh Patel’s post on the subject of AVE as I was pulling this recap together, so do give it a read.
If I have one mantra when it comes to measurement – that’s it. Outcomes outcomes outcomes. Repeat after me: OUTCOMES.
But this recap isn’t (just) about me. So in that vein, here’s Sean Williams’ recap, which also looks at the AVE debate (or paroxysm, as he calls it). Below are some of the highlights of the chat, and you can find the entire transcript here.
The four questions posed were:
- What are the most common mistakes in measuring PR?
- How does a newbie get started in “smart” measurement?
- How has the PR measurement landscape changed over the years, or has it?
- Can you recommend some educational resources?
Here are just a few of the gems, and not just from Katie:
And those are just a few. I do hope you’ll read the transcript and share your thoughts via a comment below, or on Twitter using the #measurepr hashtag.
Katie – thank you so much for kicking off the inaugural #measurepr chat; I hope you’ll be back often as the featured guest!
A quick note on how we’ll proceed: these chats will take place every two weeks for now; if we see a great urge to increase (or decrease the frequency), we’ll do so, but for now, if you’re interested in PR measurement, do mark your calendars for the next one (February 16) from 12-1 pm ET, and every other Tuesday following.
And remember – we want to get your questions answered – so if you have questions you’d like to have discussed at a future chat, please email them to me at sburke (a) shonaliburke (dot) com – or, of course, you can always tweet me.
Until the next time – keep chatting and keep measuring!
More resources:
- The Institute for Public Relations has great resources on measurement
- I created a Twitter list of folks I think are leaders in measurement, so you might want to check them out
- As our featured guest, I think it’s only right to point you to Katie’s website and blog
- A presentation I made at PRSA09 on measurement, which may particularly help those of you at non-profits/with low or no budget
Image: Quinn Dombrowski, Creative Commons
test Filed under MeasurePR, Measurement, Public Relations, Twitter | Tags: #measurepr, allan schoenberg, justin goldsborough, kathy moore, katie paine, Measurement, PR measurement, pritesh patel, sean williams, twitterchat | Comments (7)
7 Responses to “Of Cabbages and Kings and Measuring PR”
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Shonali, thanks for the mention. AVE is one of those very much PR insider things, and a topic often raised by marketing folks who don’t “get” PR. It’s a fascinating and quite existential discussion for us PR eggheads, but I think most in the C-suite are just as you say — more interested in actual business impact than “gee whiz” numbers.
The trick is that in many cases, there are so many possible inputs affecting business outcomes that it’s hard to isolate our piece of the puzzle. Tim Marklein’s comment on my post points out, rightly, that though many of us would like the AVE issue closed, there still is much work to be done to garner an appropriate replacement.
Thanks again for starting the chat – “See” you on the 16th, albeit a few minutes late.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by shonali: Recap of 1st #measurepr http://tr.im/MGUA TX again @kdpaine, h/t @commAMMO @kathy_moore @allanschoenberg @priteshpatel9 @jgoldsborough…
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